The visual overhaul makes this the best looking Pokémon yet. Naturally, the amount of Pokémon on offer is almost insurmountable and will have you catching them all for quite a while, but be aware, they are a needy lot.

For a DS title Elite Beat Agents looks and sounds great. The agents are animated brilliantly (although you might not notice their dance moves due to your level of concentration) and the cutscenes are often hilarious.

As a whole, though, it's an elegantly crafted thriller that stands out as an original, charming and beautiful adventure. As an experience it's well worth the price of admission, but sadly Ghost Trick lets itself down with its overall simplicity and the disappointment of its crucial final act.

It's essentially like the previous Forzas but with more stuff and slightly tweaked handling. I like it a lot, apart from the trees which are absolutely awful. But yeah, if you like yourself some simulation Forza, Forza 6 is the Forza for you.

Nostalgia often paints over glaring flaws in modern games, but in Donkey Kong Country Returns it simply helps create an even more enjoyable experience.

Bully is a surprisingly simple and rather tame game by Rockstar's standards, but that's part of its charm. The sense of grandeur seen in the likes of San Andreas isn't here, but Bully has a sense of character that is unique.

I've considered myself a Call of Duty fan for many years, and I've held a deep-seated distrust of Treyarch since Call of Duty 3. No longer.

Tearaway is a beautiful title. It represents the importance of stories, manages to create friendships, and is capable of exciting and entertaining regardless of its simplicity.

Visually the game is fantastic. In-game the graphics are among the best on the PSP, and alongside the occasional, highly polished traditional cut-scenes, there are a wealth of comic book style semi-animated cut-scenes that are presented with panache, and in some way explain the creatively inspired Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel, as a kind of precursor to Portable Ops' styling.

With wonderfully varied levels, colourful, cel-shaded graphics and mind-bending puzzles that'll have you working those little grey cells into the ground, Zack & Wiki triumphantly makes its debut on Nintendo's Wii, the only console it could have appeared on.

Monkey Island 2 is a sacred property to many - me included - and we expect the game to be treated with an appropriate amount of respect. It isn't.

The sequel, by definition, cannot pack the same shock, but it arrives bearing new gifts.

It'll teach you things, broaden your horizons, and give you a damn good time; think of it as the Mrs Robinson to your brawling Benjamin Braddock. As Taokaka might say, meow can you resist?

This is my problem: loving Spirit Tracks means excusing failings games in other less-loved series might not get away with. Criticising it, on the other hand, does a disservice to how wonderful it truly is. Which horn do I run into? The answer is: both.

Dead Space 2 is sometimes a confused and disappointing production, but more often than not it's tense and fascinating.

Minor problems aside, DIRT 2 is everything racing fans will want from an off-road racer. The driving is fast, fun and be tailored to your skill level. Hardcore fans will work hard shaving split seconds off their best times, while novices can still work through the career and have fun with their fiends online.

With HeartGold and SoulSlver the Pokémon series has reached a point where it can't get any better. It's like a level 100 Pikachu; it's as good as it can possibly be, but it's probably about time it evolved already.

It’s only when you stop playing, feeling somehow frazzled, energised, and jittery, that you realise the game has as much in common with the audiovisual arts as it does with a double-shot of espresso.

It’s a somehow even darker world, brought to life death by incredible music and superb use of light and colour.

None of these problems keep PES 2016 from being the greatest football game of all time. The question is no longer whether PES can catch FIFA, and in truth hasn't been for a while. Instead, it's the other way around, and may well be for years.

If you're short on patience or have a nervous disorder, then you should approach Rearmed with caution. If, however, you love the genre and harbor fond memories of the original, then this game will seem like a gift from the Eighties God of Shooty Bang-Bang.

Rayman Origins has an awful lot to give: it's a passionate tribute to the days when platform games ruled the Earth, but beyond that, it's also one of the best examples of the genre we've had in recent memory.

For all its added features and refinements, Black and White still rigidly follows the tried and tested formula. The leaps and bounds folks like me have been hankering after will have to wait until the inevitable 3DS version. Until then, however, rest assured in the knowledge that Black and White are damn fine games; the best the series has to offer.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus jumps from breakneck bloodshed, to humour involving your endearing crew, with aplomb; a masterfully done sequel.

This isn't really WipEout's PS3 debut, being a collection of things we've seen before, but as a teaser to what is surely to come it's a highly polished and tremendously exciting game.

Thankfully, what we got is new layers of depth that, while not revolutionising the series, have made this year's game a more accurate and more immersive managerial experience.

Minor problems aside, DIRT 2 is everything racing fans will want from an off-road racer. The driving is fast, fun and be tailored to your skill level. Hardcore fans will work hard shaving split seconds off their best times, while novices can still work through the career and have fun with their fiends online.

The 360 game's soul shines just as bright now as it did a year ago, and so the PC version, with its improved visuals, lengthened campaign, more multiplayer maps and a game editor at least matches it, and perhaps even exceeds it.